The Écrivain of Gustave Flaubert is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Charles Bovary with an iron fist, and notable for its keen interest in outer space, ritual sacrifices, and frequent executions. The compassionate, cynical, humorless, devout population of 29.197 billion French Realists are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Yonville-l'Abbaye. The average income tax rate is 56.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient French Realist economy, worth a remarkable 4,848 trillion Salammbôs a year, is fairly diversified and dominated by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Tourism, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Black market activity is rampant. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 166,060 Salammbôs, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.6 times as much as the poorest.

Nocturnal light pollution is mostly blue, it isn't a secret plot without caviar and foie gras, apples shaped like baguettes have become a strange new food fad, and raccoons are plump and satiated. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Gustave Flaubert's national animal is the club foot, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is the mediocrity of daily life.

Gustave Flaubert is ranked 8,145^th in the world and 1^st in Seinfeld for Largest Manufacturing Sector, scoring 45,316.38 on the Gooback-Jerbs Productivity Index.